How Our “Invisible” Community is Finally Claiming Its Place 

To build solidarity and belonging, our long-overlooked community has successfully advocated for inclusion in federal data. 

As we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States, we all can agree that “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” remain a worthy collective aspiration. Throughout our country’s history, this vision has inspired activists to work toward bold goals: abolishing slavery, broadening the right to vote, advancing civil rights, elevating Indigenous voices, and opening the door to immigrants.

My own journey has given me insight into how history, power, and a shared commitment to our future have shaped visibility and belonging for my community within American society. I’ve learned that representation can begin with data, and researchers can play a valuable role in advancing the dignity and humanity of our communities. 

A Personal Calling 

In the steel mill town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania where I grew up, Sundays meant attending our Orthodox Christian church. Four generations after my great-grandfather emigrated there from Lebanon, I spoke barely a handful of Arabic words. But my family held strongly to our Lebanese Christian identity. I don’t think I met a Muslim until college.

While we were one small slice of the Arab American community, very little of my story fits stereotypes of what we now call the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) community. In fact, some have said to me, “you’re not really Arab American.” 

Stinging comments like that reveal a need to understand our diversity as well as the characteristics that tie us together.  Fostering this understanding guided my work as research and content manager at the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It led me to co-found the Center for Arab Narratives (CAN), which cultivates community-informed, interdisciplinary research to deepen understanding of the Arab and MENA communities. 

The Long History of MENA Communities in America

My interest in the Arab American story grew during graduate school. After years of studying American culture and history, I arrived at the startling realization that I’d barely learned anything about my own heritage. Yet our people have been emigrating to the United States for more than a century, drawn here by the promise of education and economic advancement. People from countries like Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria first put down roots in U.S. cities in the late 1800s, establishing small businesses, cafes, and houses of worship. 

As Arabs settled in America, many became naturalized citizens. But the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1880s barred citizenship to anyone from Asia. That law was sometimes used to exclude immigrants from Arab countries on the Asian continent. To gain the right to citizenship that the racist immigration system denied to most non-White people, Arab Americans fought to be categorized as White. Courts eventually agreed and the U.S. Census classified Arabs as White for much of the 20th century.

That apparent victory led to dire, unanticipated consequences. Aggregated data made it almost impossible to distinguish MENA people from the White population. This undermined the health of our communities. For example, since we didn’t know how heavily the opioid epidemic affected our Detroit community, we couldn’t effectively target outreach, prevention, or treatment. Similarly, we couldn’t identify the number of MENA small business owners in the city or measure their socioeconomic or health status. 

As harmful consequences of the Census categorization became apparent, Arab Americans embarked on a decades-long advocacy campaign. CAN and other grassroots organizations mobilized community members to take a stand. In 2023, this sustained effort led the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to open public comment on proposed regulations to adopt our recommendation for a MENA category. Thirteen thousand supportive comments poured in. OMB acknowledged our collective power when it announced the new policy we had been fighting for: that federal agencies must now break out the MENA population when they collect data. After 30 years of coalition building and advocacy, we had successfully persuaded the federal government to establish a MENA category! We were finally visible.

Researching Our Newly Visible Community

Agencies have until March 2029 to fully implement these new regulations. With support from RWJF, CAN released Advancing Research with MENA Communities: A Guide to share practical guidance for producing effective research in non-extractive ways. The guide provides essential context through snapshots of our history, cultural practices, and lived experience. It also defines true community partnerships, which include shared power, mutual accountability, and co-ownership of methods and results.

The guide stresses the need to build trust with communities. Building trust cannot be rushed. This can be hard for researchers who have academic calendars, tenure considerations, and grant deadlines to contend with. But genuine relationships develop gradually. It can take a year or more of consistently showing up at community events and demonstrating a genuine interest before residents open up to meaningful conversations.

Yet researchers tend to reach out only after a crisis. That’s the wrong time to do it. When Somalis are facing hateful verbal attacks or Muslims are gunned down in their mosques, it’s not helpful for strangers to come in and start asking questions. Researchers must forge ties with communities before they are in crisis, not in the painful aftermath. 

Liberty and Justice for All

The MENA Census designation also helps researchers understand how MENA experiences overlap with those of Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Indigenous people. Decentering Whiteness is a major step toward achieving true diversity, equity, and inclusion. It especially resonates as we commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. 

Here in Detroit, I serve on the America250MI Committee formed to coordinate Michigan’s celebration. One of our themes is the Unfinished Revolutions. This is a moment to reflect on the monumental declaration of freedom that America’s founding documents contain. It’s a time to ask what freedom really means. Who is it intended for? Our systems and structures have yet to fully acknowledge the humanity of all people. The MENA community stands in solidarity with Black and Indigenous communities, people of color, LGBTQIA+ people, and people with disabilities. 

Our 250th anniversary reminds us that we are stronger together. And only together can we realize the American promise contained in the Declaration of Independence.

About the Author

Matthew Stiffler is director of the Center for Arab Narratives. He also lectures on Arab and Muslim American Studies at the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor.